AVRUPA Minerals and Beak Consultants GmbH are investigating tin (Sn) skarns in the Vogtland area. Prospecting activities for the exploration license in the Oelsnitz/Vogtland area (Germany) started earlier this year and are now producing preliminary results. Recently, a prospective Sn-occurrence was “re-discovered”. After extensive mining dating back to the middle ages, by the 19th century the deposit was assumed to be depleted.

A prospectivity map created by use of the software advangeo® indicated a prospectivity for Sn skarns in the area. Follow-up work showed that the prospectivity of the entire area should be reviewed. In addition to the greisen ores that were mined in the past, tin bearing skarns also occur. Work done in the 1970ies by the former SDAG Wismut in other areas of the Erzgebirge also acknowledged these rocks as very promising. They are hosting huge deposits, e.g. Hämmerlein und Tellerhäuser with a total tonnage of more than 200,000 t contained tin.

The tin occurrence Oelsnitz was formed by the interaction of favorable host rocks with a concealed intrusion of so-called Sn-granites. The tin skarn ores of interest were first discovered at the surface and were later confirmed by studies in the archive of the Geological Survey of Saxony. Tin skarn ores were first discovered by drilling in the 1970ies but classified as non-prospective and have never been further investigated. Consequently, they were not included in the mineral occurrence cadastre of Saxony.

Our results show that in addition to the tin, there is also silver, zinc and the rare element indium in the ore. These results once more confirmed the applicability of the prediction software advangeo® in practical exploration targeting.

AVRUPA Minerals (www.avrupaminerals.com) is a Canadian prospect generator exploration company successfully working in Germany, Portugal, Kosovo, and elsewhere in Europe. Beak Consultants GmbH is a German Consultancy engaged in the fields of mineral prospecting, exploration, geoscientific mapping and customized software development.

The prediction software advangeo® has been in development by Beak Consultants GmbH since 2008. In a self-learning process, the artificial neural network based software is able to analyze the fingerprints of known mineral occurrences in a wide range of existing data. Finally, the “knowledge” is used to create mineral predictive maps that are an excellent tool for the development of exploration targets.